It seems like every day some cool new ecological adaptation is discovered. The most recent is written up in this week's issue of the journal Nature, but I found it by way of the BBC. It turns out a species of caecilian (a homonym of Sicilian, but no, they don't live in Sicily) found in Kenya has young that feed by literally ripping the skin off the back of the mother.
Seriously, this one is just too easy.
Mark Wilkinson, the zoologist at the UK's Natural History Museum that documented the behavior, notes the following:
You can draw parallels between skin feeding in these creatures and lactation in mammals, so studying how this form of parenting evolved might shed light on how parenting developed in mammals.
This dude must never have had an s.o. going through a pregnancy. Hell, I've only gone through 11 weeks of one, and even I can tell the parallels emerge way, WAY before lactation ever enters the picture. Of course, there are the freakishly engorged mammary glands, but that's for another post. Well no, actually, it won't be. My mom reads this blog. Sorry, Mom.
What I allude to is this: the zygote is turning into a real asshole.
He/she/they (oh please God, no...) takes every nutrient and ounce of energy d.w. has, and still sends her running to the bathroom to hurl 10 or 15 times a day. Just 'cause, I suppose. Luckily, d.w. has grown so accustomed to the sadistic little one's devious behavior that during the course of normal conversation, she now just pukes mid-sentence, afterward finishing her thought without missing a beat. It is actually quite amusing, although she glares when I laugh too loud.
Pregnant women can be so sensitive sometimes.
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